Rather than sit out the last two games to protect his batting average lead in the triple-crown (average, homers, RBIs) race, Miguel Cabrera put himself in the lineup Tuesday for the Detroit Tigers and went 2-for-3. With one game left, he is now on the verge of being the first to win all three categories since Carl Yastrzemski did it for the Boston Red Sox in 1967. Cabrera is up one homer and 11 RBIs on Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers. And with a .331 batting average, that race is all but locked up. Cabrera could go 0-for-5 on Wednesday and still win the title if Mike Trout of the Anaheim Angels doesn’t go 5-for-5. I would expect Cabrera to play. Remember, Ted Williams was hitting .3997 for the Red Sox heading into the final day of the 1941 season and his manager suggested sitting out so the average would be rounded up to .400. No way, Williams said, and went 6-for-8 in a doubleheader to finish at .406. Somewhere, Ted’s head is smiling.

Second cup: Three knuckleballs? Really?

Adam Greenberg of the Miami Marlins signed a one-day contract and returned to baseball Tuesday night for the first time since being struck in the head in 2005. And he had to swing at a floating butterfly thrown by R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets. Greenberg struck out in his only at-bat but got a standing ovation and called it “magical.” Dickey tossed three straight knuckleballs. What, he couldn’t groove a medium fastball?

Third cup: What’s the point spread for the debate?

This is the time when sports fans get very interested in politics because it’s like an athletics event. So we’ll be tuned in tonight to watch President Barack Obama take on Mitt Romney in the first of a three-game series of debates. There’s strategy, trash-talking and attacking weaknesses. We like seeing the polls and other numbers. We are experts at reading body language. So when the debate is finished, ask a sports fan who won. We’ll have two completely different opinions and both sides will insist the other is wrong. That’s sports.

About This Blog

Todd Shanesy is an award-winning sports writer who has been twice honored nationally by the Associated Press and more than three dozen times by the South Carolina Press Association. He is a native of Troy, Ohio, and studied journalism at Marshall University (1987 graduate). Shanesy is a former sports editor of the Florence (S.C.) Morning News and has been with the Spartanburg Herald-Journal since 1991.

Follow him two ways on Twitter: @ToddShanesySHJ and @TerrierTracker (for everything Wofford-related).